1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the keys of an electronic keyboard, shaped in a novel way to permit comfortable operation by a typist or other business machine operator with long fingernails, as well as offering increased comfort of operation to all keyboard operators because the novel keys will permit a wide range of placement of the anterior-posterior plane that a keyboard is positioned in, varying from vertical with the keys facing away from the operator, through horizontal with the keys facing upward, to vertical with the keys facing toward the operator.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore the form and positioning of an electronic keyboard was largely patterned after its predecessor, the mechanical typewriter. The contact surface of the keys of an electronic keyboard have been shaped in a broad and flat fashion, much as in the old mechanical typewriter. This form, while necessary to allow operation of the keys of a mechanical typewriter, owing to requirements for a broad distribution of force across the fingertips, is not necessary for the operation of the keys of an electronic keyboard, as simple electrical contact is all that is necessary and not the moving of a mechanical device. No design has been put forth that has taken advantage of the potential of electronically operated business machines to permit, by lateral constiction of the key width, operators with long nails to have improved precision and freedom of movement when operating the keys. Also, the unchanging placement of the characters on a keyboard on top of the keys has restricted the freedom to substantially tip the keyboard anterior-posteriorly into varied, more comfortable planes for operators of business machine keyboards.
While the level of keys has been raised by keyboard covers, the form of the surface of the keyboard has remained essentially the same. The present invention endeavors to provide space enough between the keys to allow stylishly long nails to protrude downward below the finger-contacting surfaces of the tops of the keys.
Also, although in one embodiment of the present invention, the surface is covered with a protective sheet, as recited by Parker in U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,980, that is incidental to the prime purposes of the invention, which are to provide access and positioning for comfortable manipulation of the keys by the fingers of a business machine operator with long fingernails, as well as to have keys that allow much freedom of rotation anterior-posteriorly of the plane that the keyboard is placed in.